A NINE-YEAR LANDMARK

In July 2011, almost 9 years ago, I launched this blog and I have just passed an important landmark in my eyes by attaining 100,000 “pageviews”, that is, hits by readers. May I express my heart-felt thanks to my diverse readers from all over the world - they range from Japan to Peru with my largest readership being in the United States, and naturally in the UK or places like Canada and Australasia. Outside the anglophone world, my keenest followers are in Russia, Greece and France. These figures exclude members of my Readers Group who get individual copies hot off the press by email.

I must thank primarily my extended family members, notably my three sons, Eddy, Rob and Alan, for their often critical but kindly support but I also want to mention particular individuals: Andrew D who  spurred me into action, Peter S and Rod R who added their encouraging comments to almost every post, Margaret D, Jonathan M, Dick G, Paul G and Chris McC who contributed their angles on many subjects and even David N whose Remainer muse burnt with a fiery, if intelligent, intensity. In fact, politics have not been my most popular subject – my pieces on Rococo architecture lead the field by many lengths followed by pieces on English cathedrals and their connections. In any event, a big Thank You to you all!

A Rococo room in the Nymphenburg Palace, Munich

How much has changed since 2011 or is it plus ça change, plus, c’est la même chose? There were awful earthquakes and a tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 killing 23,000, but recently we have seen volcanic eruptions in New Zealand, hurricanes in the USA and biblical floods in little old Britain. The US bumped off Osama bin Laden in 2011 and another mortal enemy General Suleimani in 2020. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in the Arab Spring of 2011 only to die, disgraced but free, in his bed last week. Libya’s Gaddafi was not so lucky in 2011. The Moslem world, with its appalling civil war in Syria and anarchy elsewhere, remains in constant turmoil 9 years later.

In the UK much has changed in 9 years. The Royal Family soap-opera grinds on remorselessly. For 5 years a fragile coalition of Conservatives and LibDems pottered about amiably, not achieving much, but recovering joylessly from the 2008 Financial crises. It was led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg – remember them? – both have now retired (hurt) from the Westminster game. A general election in 2015 gave Cameron a working majority and buried the LibDems.

          The forgotten duo, Clegg and Cameron

Cameron, whom it was hard actively to dislike, kept the extreme SNP at bay by defending the status quo in Scotland with a rather slim 55/45 referendum majority in 2014. The Nationalist bubble remains inflated and is yet to be comprehensively pricked.

An over-confident Cameron, a tad too fond of referenda, allowed one on EU membership to proceed and was horrified when the electorate voted 52% to 48% to leave in June 2016. Not just Cameron, but a tidy majority of MPs, peers and the bien-pensant Establishment of civil servants, professionals and academics, with a venal media, were of like mind. Together they fought a furious campaign to overturn and frustrate the democratic verdict. They had however misread the determination of the Leavers, represented strongly in provincial England and by those jealous of the UK’s hard-won historic sovereignty. While the luckless Theresa May was paralysed by the multi-faceted opposition, Boris Johnson succeeded her, then called and won a resounding election victory in December 2019. A Withdrawal Agreement taking the UK out of the EU was signed by all parties by 31 January 2020. A nightmare was over and the divisions will slowly heal. Let’s hope for vigorous government resolving the trade pact with the EU, airport expansion, infrastructure priorities, education and health improvements. Boris and his team can do it!

Theresa May fails

Boris Johnson on course for triumph

                                               

I am less confident of events across the Pond. The thoughtful, smooth but indecisive Barack Obama ended his 8-year presidency in 2017, to be succeeded by the wildly unpredictable Donald Trump. Trump is a phenomenon, sadly a dangerous, reckless and ignorant phenomenon. A stranger to US Congressional politics, to the ways of government and to the traditions of his great office, Trump makes his policy announcements on Twitter and believes any political figure he cannot bully he can bribe or blackmail, as if they were property spivs like himself. He has thrown US institutions and his foreign alliances into disarray, but his populist oratory keeps his retrogressive supporters happy, making a second term, God help us, quite likely. The Democrats have a motley selection of contenders, headed by aged socialist Bernie Sanders, none of whom has the remotest chance of beating Trump.

Trump sounds off

Tyson Fury on top of the world

                                                     

But we Brits, battered today by Storm Jorge, threatened with major disruption by the dreaded coronavirus – why does it take much-vaunted medical science one whole year to produce a vaccine? - have the consolation of having produced a rival to Trump. Our blowhard bruiser is heroic Tyson Fury, otherwise known as The Gypsy King, a very rough diamond indeed, who boxed like an angel to stop slugger Deonte Wilder a week ago to win the WBC world heavyweight crown. He is 6ft 9in, of Irish traveller origin, but brought up in Manchester. He thankfully does not have his finger on the nuclear trigger but is as flamboyant as they come, often wrapped up in a Union Jack. Well played. Tyson!

Happy Leap Day to you all!

SMD

29.02.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

SPORTING ECSTASY

As I watch Scotland sink to 2 (out of 2) Six Nations defeats, as Arsenal flounder and England’s middle order batting collapses again, in my depression I struggle to recall why I follow sport at all. Then I think of some high-spots over the years, a few of which I personally witnessed, and remember those warm feelings of triumph and achievement which sporting success engenders. Let me share some of my moments with you – you will all have your own fond memories.

I start with Racing. It was 1951 and my ever-generous parents took the family to Bournemouth, whence, aged 9, I was taken to my first race meeting at Bath. That day the champion jockey Gordon Richards rode through the card winning all 5 races. I was most impressed and we all remember Gordon, soon to be Sir Gordon, winning in 1953 the Coronation Derby on Pinza with his characteristic erect saddle position and long reins.

Sir Gordon Richards

Coronation year 1953 was remarkable in many ways. I was at prep school and on the day itself we were roused with the news that Mount Everest had at last been scaled by the British expedition led by John Hunt with the actual peak climbers being New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. An auspicious start for a new reign!

Everest with mountaineers Tenzing and Hillary

 

Still at school that day in 1953 I remember us all crowding round a “steam” radio to hear Denis Compton hit the winning runs as England regained the Ashes lost in 1934. Long years of dominance by Australia with Don Bradman, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller in the vanguard were finally over. It was fitting that Compton, a dashing cavalier batsman whose smiling features advertising Brylcreem adorned every billboard, should be the hero of the hour, with his trademark leg sweep.

Denis Compton hits the Ashes winning runs (1953)

                     

There were of course other cricket red-letter days – Jim Laker skittling out the Aussies at Old Trafford in 1956 with a 19-wicket haul and Ian Botham’s feats with bat and ball (399 runs and 34 wickets) in 1981 over a whole series. Derring-do indeed!

Another amazing moment was Roger Bannister running the first sub-4 minute mile at the modest Iffley Road track at Oxford University in 1954. Bannister was paced by Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, both magnificent athletes of the amateur era. Dr. Bannister achieved immortality but was rather prouder of his later achievements as a neurologist.

Roger Bannister beats the 4-minute mile barrier (1954)

English football hit unbeatable heights with the World Cup triumph of 1966, under Bobby Moore’s inspiring captaincy, beating Germany 4-2 at Wembley with goals from Martin Peters and a hat-trick from Geoff Hurst. It was a wonderful performance but hard-won as it went to an unbearably tense extra time. I watched the game in a small Amsterdam hotel where a friend and I were living it up – no, no, I mean we were lapping up the culture! – and the other Dutch viewers were equally enthusiastic.

Bobby Moore and his great team (1966)

Sadly, English football went into a long decline, though we should doff a cap to right winger Stanley Matthews who had much earlier enchanted the crowd and mesmerized opposing Bolton in the 1953 FA Cup Final winning 4-3. Matthews inspired his Blackpool team and Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick for them. Germany and then Argentina dominated at national level until a great day in Munich in 2001, a World Cup qualifier, when England tore Germany apart 5-1 with Michael Owen scoring a brilliant hat-trick.

Being a Scottish football fan requires a thick skin but at club level there have been high-spots, not least when Celtic under Billy MacNeill beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon in 1967 to capture the European Cup. A blockbusting goal from Tommy Gemmell equalized and Steve Chalmers prodded in the winner. Scotland rocked and rolled! My own home team Aberdeen defied the odds and beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the European Cup-Winners Cup in Gothenburg in 1983, managed by brilliant Alex Ferguson. The goals came from Eric Black and John Hewitt with stalwart support from stars Willy Miller and Gordon Strachan, but as ever it was a team effort.

Aberdeen beat Real Madrid 2-1 at Gothenburg

Golf in the UK and Europe was dominated from the 1920s by Americans like Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tony Lema or Jack Nicklaus and the likes of South African Gary Player and Australian Peter Thomson. Then, amazingly, Tony Jacklin won the Open in 1969 and the US Open in 1970 breaking a psychological dam leading to regular successes in the Ryder Cup for the European team and individual triumphs in the Masters and other great US events for European golfers. One of the most memorable was Nick Faldo’s single-minded dissection of luckless Greg Norman in the Masters in 1996.

Jacklin wins The Open (1969)

Faldo beats Norman for the Masters (1996)

Finally, some rugby memories, and as a Scotland supporter, pulse-quickening day are liberally interspersed with long months of gloom. Everyone enjoyed the flashes of brilliance from Cliff Morgan, Gareth Edwards, Richard Sharp, Barry John, John Rutherford and more recently from Gregor Townsend, Jonny May and Finn Russell. Yet Scotland’s great day, under David Sole, was her winning of the 1990 Calcutta Cup against England 13-7 at Murrayfield. I was there with my lovely wife; the atmosphere was electric and politically hostile to a confident English team under Will Carling. The winning try came from winger Tony Stanger who controversially touched down a bouncing ball over the English line. Scotland erupted in ecstasy.

Scotland's John Jeffrey disagrees with England's Jeremy Guscott (1990)

Thanks for the memories!

SMD      

12.02.20   

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2020